Q16. Group Concerns#

Question#

Please let us know if there is anything your group needs to work on or if your group has any problems related to DE&I? We would like to find commonalities in issues and share them with other groups to find clues for a better community.

Responses#

import pandas as pd
import hvplot.pandas
import titanite as ti

print(f"Pandas: {pd.__version__}")
print(f"Titanite: {ti.__version__}")

%opts magic unavailable (pyparsing cannot be imported)
%compositor magic unavailable (pyparsing cannot be imported)

Pandas: 2.2.3
Titanite: 0.6.0

f_cfg = "../../../sandbox/config.toml"
f_csv = "../../../data/test_data/prepared_data.csv"
d = ti.Data(read_from=f_csv, load_from=f_cfg)
config = d.config()
data = d.read()

2025-05-12 10:04:36.047 | INFO     | titanite.preprocess:categorical_data:135 - Categorize

Remove ‘NaN’

data0 = data["q16"].dropna()
print(len(data0))
len(data0) / len(data)

0.19661016949152543

(WIP)

Not sure.
No need.
No.
No.
I don’t know
No.
No.
No.
Prefer not to answer
No.
Yes.
Don’t know.
NA.
No.
N/A
Hiring
It is hard for me to remember to use “they” for individuals who prefer this pronoun. In some contexts, it is temporarily confusing
Japanese students are too shy to speak foreign visitors and students.
Awareness, tolerance, inclusivity
There is no need to work on forcing a better gender balance. In particular, the fact that there is an open call for women’s quota employment is very problematic because it is gender discriminatory.
Encourage master studies.
Recruit more female persons at all levels.
Should work on language.
There are no women
Acknowledging that it’s a issue to be addressed in the first place
Inclusion in scientific communication for people with speech disorders (e.g. stuttering)
I think inside university they need to work on diversity and inclusion. The group is not very international, people are sometimes excluded because the spoken language at lunch is not english but the native language which not everyone knows. Inside the collaboration we have to work on Gender topics. The high posts are almost all taken by old men, and a not small amount of women/men have experienced sexual harassment inside the collaboration.
Some more female candidates should be there.
The biggest issue is that our group is very small (8 people). The institution as a whole does better with DE&I.
I cannot say our group is diverse, it is something we should work on.
I’ve been the target of homophobic jokes.
Job applicant pool often includes a small percentage of female or minority applicants.
Don’t succumb to this trend, scientists should do research and not DEI and other political things.
“1/ I am in favour of positive discrimination and I would like to see it implemented a minima for gender balance in our PhD and post-doc hirings. 2/ In my view a big problem for equity and diversity comes from the many administrative obstacles that can discourage us hiring a candidate from a country for which eg. we know that the procedure for getting residence permit and other social benefits associated to his contract will be long and cumbersome. Most of the time, our administrative staff cannot provide much help on that and we researchers end up having to manage all these complicated questions by ourselves, while we have not been trained nor informed to do so. It would be really good to implement at the level of our lab or university a specific administrative unit that could manage all these questions in a most efficient way, so that it would not be seen as an obstacle to recruitment anymore. “
Our institution and society have some official discrimination against foreigners. We have previously lobbied to get some of those rules removed, and am presently working to have others removed.
Nobody.
People consistently get pronouns wrong or make little effort to get them right; DEI work falls to people who are already in minoritized groups; lack of buy-in from senior people on DEI initiatives.
Too small pool of female researchers to scout/hire
I would like more female presence in my group as it is intimidating when starting out, but that comes down to needing more female students in the course.
We often speek about geneder issue related proble and no specific need emerged among the member of the group
No women in post-doc position or higher career positions, not much understanding for people who get ill.
To hire more women and diverse people instead of just trainings and ineffective courses/workshops.
it is harder to give fellowships to people outside Europe / America; not very involved in LGBTIAQ+ activities
Promote rules to increase the diversity.
A dedicated research plan and accountability procedure would help
The main problem is the responsibility roles that are in a large percentage of men
Our group need to reduce administrative tasks in order to embrace diverse talents and work together with them.
Gender balance, hiring foreigners.
Participation in DE&I workshops. Has not happened yet.
I want DEI and ESG completely removed and a return to equality of opportunity and merit based system.
No particular problem experienced so far.
more diversity in hiring at all levels, more flexibility with people with family duties (e.g. no meetings between 5pm-9pm)
I think one of the challenges around DE&I in general is being able to empathize without having to fully understand. Many people feel they have to fully understand a struggle for it to be real, which prevents a lot of forward movement on DE&I initiatives, i.e. if it isn’t happening to me or something I can see, then it isn’t a priority.
Denial of there being an equity problem
We need to increase the diversity and improve the gender balance
Abuse of power (especially when it comes to sexual harassment at conference), age discrimination
Increase amount of females.
no issue yet, but it can be possible that we have not been recognise any bad situation/actions in the group. Hopefully, the session will be a good time for us.

1. Issues with Gender Balance and Diversity#

Keywords:: gender balance, more female presence, female candidates, too small pool of female researchers, no women in post-doc positions, diversity in hiring, increase amount of females, gender balance problems, gender discrimination, need more female students

2. Challenges with DE&I Implementation#

Keywords:: hiring challenges, administrative obstacles, pronoun issues, DEI work falls on minority groups, ineffective courses, age discrimination, sexual harassment, political focus over research, empathy challenges, empathy without full understanding, denial of equity problem

3. Language and Communication Barriers#

Keywords:: language issues, inclusion in scientific communication, native language exclusion, English communication, speech disorders

4. Cultural and International Barriers#

Keywords:: international hiring challenges, administrative support, cultural barriers, institutional discrimination, need for diverse talents, non-native speakers

5. Need for Improved Awareness and Inclusion#

Keywords:: awareness, tolerance, inclusion, acknowledge DE&I issues, support diverse backgrounds, better awareness of issues, raise awareness, encourage inclusion

7. Practical Suggestions for Improvement#

Keywords:: encourage master studies, reduce administrative tasks, dedicated research plan, accountability, increase diversity, improve gender balance, hire more diverse people, promote diversity rules, more female presence

8. Concerns about DE&I Policies#

Keywords:: forced gender balance, problematic women’s quota, , return to merit-based system, concerns with DE&I initiatives, DE&I work seen as unnecessary, DE&I seen as political, avoid political DE&I

Q16. Group Concerns

Contents